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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §29.3.8.pr

Opening of Separately Sealed Pupillary Tablets

Passage 4510 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

It is ruled that even if there is no superscription prohibiting opening, if the testator left the pupillary tablets separately sealed, the praetor will not permit them to be opened without a judicial inquiry.

[ULPIANUS libro quinquagesimo ad edictum. ] §29.3.8.prPupillares tabulas, etiamsi non fuerit superscriptum ne aperirentur, attamen, si seorsum eas signatas testator reliquerit, praetor eas aperiri nisi causa cognita non patietur.
[ULPIANUS, book fifty on the Edict] As for pupillary tablets, even if there has been no superscription that they should not be opened, nevertheless, if the testator left them sealed separately, the praetor will not allow them to be opened except after an inquiry into the case.

Notes

  1. §29.3.8.prPupillares tabulas — An accusative noun phrase placed at the beginning of the sentence as a prolepsis, anticipating the accusative pronoun 'eas' which appears after the subordinate clauses. Grammatically, it functions as the subject of the passive infinitive 'aperiri' or the object of 'patietur'.
  2. §29.3.8.prne aperirentur — An imperfect subjunctive clause (subjunctive of will/prohibition) explaining the substantive content of the impersonal passive 'superscriptum fuerit', meaning 'that they should not be opened'.
  3. §29.3.8.prnisi causa cognita — An ablative absolute (causa cognita) combined with the conjunction 'nisi' (unless). It is an idiomatic expression representing the condition 'unless an investigation of the case (causae cognitio) has been conducted' by the praetor.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §29.3.8.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:29.3.8.pr

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